Monday, 16 July 2012

Fibrous Life of Vegetables

Cotton, coir, jute, sisal etc. plant fibres is well-known. They are useful in daily life in many ways, particularly for villagers.

In the picture above, one is a ripe gourd and other shows inner fibres after removal of its skin. The soft green skin is now dried and turns hard and brown. The water, salts and minerals have gone.
The other shows thick vertical fibres that start from the stem. They are attached to the skin, carnal and stem to hold them together.

They are proportionate to the size and weight of a fruit, or rather every fruit on the creeper.
Therefore pumpkin, for example, being too heavy for its creeper is left on ground, and the creeper can't be raised on pergola – Mandapa. Interestingly pumpkin flowers are very small.

In this whole schema, from root to fruits, there is no part without use or wasted, or unnecessary.

I quote here a comment on Design by Nature by Martin Jones, which is as good as definition:

QUOTE

“In whole organism, randomness structure is uncommon. Everything seems finely tuned by the brutal rigours of natural selection. There are no spare limbs to be found and hardly any dispensable organs. This forced economy of whole organism design has always limited the use of bodily form as an evolutionary timepiece” (Martin Jones, ‘MOLECULE HUNT: How Archaeologists are Bringing the Past Back to Life’, Penguin, 2002, p. 48)”.

This definition could be beneficial guide to many a designs we make, from foods, house, clothing, food, or even a talk, poem, painting, movie... to industrial products, just anything.

As a human being I can strive for excellence, not for perfection.

However, modern civilised society believes progress is their ability to increase wealth, no matter the waste also increases proportionately.
Then let it be their lifestyle or home and habitat or leisure, no matter they need crutches of external aids to satiate their wants.

Note: The fibres in the photo is used during bath for rubbing the body. All plants have fibres. Vegetarian foods being fibrous are good for health. Wood fibres, now, are used in making yarns for clothes, besides papers etc.